"Electric." That's how Montana Farm Bureau President Hans McPherson described the mood in the room as President Trump addressed the crowd at the national Farm Bureau convention in Austin, Texas.

We spoke with McPherson about the president's speech, federal government overreach, and how federal water projects need to be reformed.

Given the tough prices that farmers and ranchers have been seeing since the tail end of the Obama Administration, but now the president's victories on trade like the USMCA and phase one of the China trade deal- how are farmers feeling at the American Farm Bureau Convention?

MCPHERSON: The electricity in the auditorium is very much there. You can really feel it...you mentioned USMCA and the first phase of the China trade deal- but there's more than a dozen other deals right now that have been inked. Japan's gonna buy a lot more Montana wheat and a lot more beef....Vietnam- the list of countries was two pages long. It's a lot more optimism for the farmer. I think it's a very, very bright day.

Susan Lake, a Ronan farmer, also shared this from the Farm Bureau convention in Austin:

LAKE: Listening to our president talk about ‘promises made, promises kept’ makes it a great day for agriculture. Having a president who doesn’t just gives lip service to farmers and ranchers make my husband and me optimistic about the future of agriculture. Ag has not felt sun on its face from Washington, D.C. for quite a while. Free trade has not been fair trade, and this president has acted on that. We now have what looks like more open markets for our beef, wheat and other agricultural products.”

Click below for the full conversation with MFBF President Hans McPherson:

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